Le Lubéron

     Michel May, who hails from Marseilles, knows the nearby Lubéron area well, and he confirms my assertion that there is no village called Lubéron. He says:
     "I have crisscrossed "Le Lubéron" and so far as I remember, a village called Lubéron indeed does not exist. The region called "Le Lubéron" is a lovely valley about 20 miles East of Avignon. There are a number of villages where one can pleasantly stay, notably Gordes, on the side of a mountain. That is where we stayed and where, more notably, the late Président François Mitterand had a country house for his second family. The young daughter from that second family, when she was in school, was asked by a teacher, who did not know of the "arrangement," what her father did. She answered, "Il est Président de la République." The teacher chastised her but of course she was right and the teacher had to apologize. A dream of glory for any schoolchild.
     This was the region where "les juifs du pape" lived more or less undisturbed from the time of the Roman occupation, or near it, through the centuries when Jews were not allowed to live much of anywhere else in Western Europe - not in Britain from the 13th century, nor in France from the 14th. They were allowed to live in specified districts in four towns, Avignon, Cavaillon, Carpentras, and L'Isle-sur-la Sorgue (formerly L'Isle-de-Venisse), by special papal dispensation, honored by the kings of Provence and later by the kings of France. René Moulinas wrote a good history of the travails of that small population.
     Also, according to local lore, a number of Caesar's captains settled in Le Lubéron on retirement, and some of the vineyards there are supposed to date from that period. Certainly some of the bridges and roads do."


     My comment: I know Gordes, and it indeed attractive. I hate to correct Michel, but Mittérrand is spelled with two rr's. I assume WAISers know that Mitterrand's "arrangement" refers to his second household. The daughter to whom Michel refers appeared openly at his funeral.
     The Pope in Rome protected the Jews, but the sermons used to convince them had little effect. The same was true while the Papacy was in Avignon. I went to Avignon to study the Spaniards there in the 18th century. They were either connected with the Papal court or studying there. That all came to an end with the French Revolution.
     There is a Jewish cemetery in Carpentras. A few years ago it was desecrated. The perpetrators were I think never caught. The Pope would have condemned the vandalism. Strange world.

Ronald Hilton - 12/30/99